Luke Campbell can’t quite tell if Ryan Garcia is actually underestimating him or if the brash, unbeaten lightweight is simply selling their lightweight title bout by boldly predicting a knockout.

Either way, Campbell can’t wait to teach his 22-year-old opponent a costly lesson Saturday night at American Airlines Center in Dallas. Campbell believes he has entirely too much experience and skill for the emerging Garcia, who is consistently listed as a 3-1 favorite over him.

“I’m unsure on what he’s actually thinking,” Campbell told BoxingScene.com. “But he’s in for a big shock come Saturday night.”

The 33-year-old Campbell is 0-2 in world title bouts, but he has faced a much higher level of opposition than Garcia, most notably Vasiliy Lomachenko and Jorge Linares. Ukraine’s Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KOs) beat Campbell by unanimous decision in Campbell’s most recent action – a 12-rounder for the WBA, WBC and WBO lightweight titles in August 2019 at O2 Arena in London.

The fast-handed, strong Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs) has knocked out the Philippines’ Romero Duno (22-2, 17 KOs) and Costa Rica’s Francisco Fonseca (27-3-2, 21 KOs) in the first round of each of his past two fights. Campbell (20-3, 16 KOs), a technically sharp southpaw, knows Garcia hasn’t encountered anyone like him in his first 20 professional fights.

“Well, I guess all questions will be answered on Saturday night,” Campbell said. “You know? But he’s certainly not been in the ring with anyone like me. So, I wanna go in there and beat the sh-t out of him. That’s what I wanna do. You know, and I’m looking forward to doing that.”

A supremely confident Garcia has predicted the exact same fate for Campbell, that he’ll “beat the sh-t” out of an experienced opponent who won a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The calm Campbell, who is nicknamed “Cool Hand Luke,” hasn’t paid much mind to any of the trash Garcia has talked during this promotion.

“I just believe that I’m a level above,” Campbell said. “And I believe me turning up on my day, I will beat anybody. I’m feeling great and I’m ready to perform Saturday. Whoever was in front me Saturday would be getting beat.”

The third-ranked Campbell and the fourth-rated Garcia will fight for the WBC interim lightweight title. Devin Haney (25-0, 15 KOs), the WBC world lightweight champ, expects to face the winner in his next fight.

DAZN will stream Garcia-Campbell as the main event of a five-fight show Saturday, starting at 8 p.m. GMT and 3 p.m. EST. 

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.